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Kotime
The continent of Kotime is home to many sentient races, but its leadership comes primarily from the many elven citadels nestled in its landscape. The elven people are strongly linked with their homeland and have been the self-appointed guardians of the continent since before the earliest known writing on Daera. Kotime has no countries or states. It is the home of unified elvendom, and all other mortal creatures who live there know that they do so at the elves' pleasure. The fey of Kotime are another story entirely. Cities and Landmarks Major Cities * Jumala[[Jumala| - "Thunder Home."]] Located in the center of Kotime, Jumala will remind human visitors of Tolkien’s vision of Lothlorien - a beautiful city of light built into and a natural part of a towering forest. The city houses some 28000 elves and about 3000 halfling and gnomish residents. Centaur visitors are common and there are occasional non-evil naga and giant visitors as well. Jumala is an ancient seat of elven power, and once encompassed the entirety of the rainforest that surrounds it. With the decline of the elves, Jumala has contracted, and many of the structures from millennia past have been subsumed back into the forest they were created from. * Talinn - "the White Harbor." Home to more than 2600 hundred elves, and hundreds more fey, halflings, gnomes and centaurs, Talinn is the main trading port in the northern half of Kotime. It is a recognizable city by human and dwarven standards, and has clear avenues, buildings of stone and hewn wood, glass windows, a central market and an avenue of many shops. It is famous in Kotime for the excellence of its bards and for its ice wine. * Raaseporin - An expansive southern port city, and the only city in Kotime where it is common to see orcs. Raaseporin is somewhat disconnected from the rest of elven culture, and so unusual social practices and cults are common here. It is a tolerant, cosmopolitan city, obsessed with modernity and fashion. It is infamous for its experimental music, art and distilleries. * Olavinlinna - "The Eastern Fortress:" a heavily fortified city and naval center, central to the elven efforts to resist goblinoid incursions * Jokipalo - Western Port City on the coast of the Dragon Sea. Other important cities and landmarks * Hämeen - Central forest village with an ancient temple to Taipo * Kastleholma - Small east-central village, formerly a powerful castle * Hakoisten - ruins * Brahelinna - ruins * Junkarsborgin - ruins in the Rystyset mountain range, former home of House Vaarasta * Lehtivihreä - a small village on the airship route between Jumala and Jokipalo * Stenberin - ruins * Oulun - ruins * Gallarus - Centaur town * Lavinium - Naga subterranean town * Belalcázar - Hobbit trading town * Jimena - Hobbit trading town * Paymogo - Hobbit trading town * Montrichard - Gnomish obnoxious city * Tumma Oskat - Northwestern region of dense forest, occupied by the Korpiklaani, a group of elves who reject civilization in favor of a more primitive lifestyle guided by shamanism. Tuonela, the valley of the dead This broad, quiet valley nestled between three low mountain ranges in south-central Kotime is the traditional resting place of all elves who have died. As such, it figures prominently in the various elvish religious traditions. There is a great stone monument in the valley where most bodies of deceased elves are burned, though other funeral practices are allowed as well. The family or closest friends and allies of the deceased elf are responsible for choosing the exact place for the body, and if it is burned, buried, or exposed to the wind. It is a place that is respected by all elves, though visited only rarely, and is an easy place to commune with spirits of the deceased. As one might expect, Tuonela is rife with unquiet ghosts, though most are content to mope and contemplate their lives. Violence in Tuonela is one of the absolute highest taboos in elven culture, and is one of the few reasons an elf will be exiled from the continent, though even elven exiles are attempted to be laid to rest in Tuonela. When surface elves find dead dark elves (slain in battle or through other causes) they traditionally bring them to Tuonela as well. There is no recorded history of any dark elven objection to this practice, and it is actually seen as a sign of peace and reconciliation. On the southwest border of Tuonela is Witch Mountain, the site of a recently destroyed coven of witches who had been siphoning soul energy from Tuonela to fuel unholy rituals. Category:Kotime Category:Continents Category:Elves